Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones
by aqaws321
Summary: ...But your words can shatter me. After a mission gone wrong, Jack blames MacGyver. Things deteriorate from there.


**Rosenn Rae wanted a fic like this. Hope I fulfilled the prompt!**

 **Warnings: mentioned death of a minor character. It isn't graphic, but it is there.**

 **(see bottom notes for full prompt.)**

* * *

Jack watched as the building went up in flames. He and his partner had been thrown to the ground just outside the building by the force of the blast. The man scrambled to his feet, attempting to head towards the flaming building, only to have his arm caught by MacGyver. The blond dug his heels in, stopping his partner from entering the building. He spoke over the roar of the flames, nearly shouting to be heard. "Jack, stop! We can't go in- it's too danger-"

He was cut off by Jack shouting back at him. "There's still someone inside, Mac!"

Firefighters had arrived on scene, and were pulling the two men away from the source of the heat. Jack could only watch as the building continued to burn despite the early efforts of the firefighters to control the blaze. He didn't look at his partner, instead keeping his gaze on the building.

Who was he kidding? Not saying what the building was wasn't going to make it any less painful. Jack stared at the orphanage. He couldn't keep his mind off of the fact that there was still a person inside when the bomb went off. The orphanage caretaker had been running behind MacGyver and Jack, and must've stopped to check if there was someone inside. Chances were, she had thought she had heard a child's cry or something, and stopped to check.

Of course, they would never know, because she was-

She was dead. Jack hadn't been able to save her. Someone was dead and Jack should've prevented it and it was all his fault-

A paramedic grabbed his chin, forcing the man to look up at him. "Sir, I need to check if you have a concussion. Follow the light with your eyes, please."

Jack dazedly followed the paramedic's instructions, barely processing the fact that he was given a clean bill of health. He wandered away from the fire trucks and ambulances, catching sight of MacGyver and Thornton talking. He made his way to the pair, ignoring the way his partner's eyes clouded over in confusion as he didn't acknowledge the blond and turned instead to Thornton. "When're we heading back for the debrief?"

Thornton watched him worriedly. "Right now. The plane for you guys is waiting at the airport. I'll be taking a later one, after I do a bit of clean-up here." She turned to walk away before hesitating and momentarily shooting MacGyver a worried glance. She turned back to Jack, grasping his bicep lightly. "Jack, this wasn't your fault."

Jack lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, trying to forestall the impending headache. Now that his head had cleared, he had begun to think a bit more clearly. He brushed Patty's hand from his arm as he replied, "Yeah, I know. See you back at HQ."

Thornton nodded, the worry in her gaze clearing a bit. "Okay."

The woman turned and walked off, leaving MacGyver and Jack to head to the waiting car. The two men hopped in and the driver sped off without a word.

The drive to the airport was quiet, neither Jack nor MacGyver breaking the silence. Jack caught the kid throwing him a few worried glances, but he ignored them. When they reached the airport, he sat in a seat by the window, his entire attitude giving off an air of "I want to be alone." Thankfully, the kid respected his wishes, and stayed in his own seat, across the plane, for the entire flight home.

* * *

When they reached the Phoenix Foundation's landing pad, Jack again refused to acknowledge his partner. MacGyver trailed after him as the older man walked into the building, unsure of what was eating Jack. However, when they reached the debriefing room and had collapsed on different couches, it was Riley who finally brought up the issue. "Okay, what's going on?"

Jack folded his arms over his chest, his gaze zeroing in on the woman. "I don't know what you mean."

Riley snorted, folding her arms to mirror of Jack's position. "Yeah, okay. Whenever you guys come back from a mission, you two _always_ sit on the same couch. I've never _once_ seen you sit on different ones."

Jack felt his temper rising. "Well, maybe that's none of your business, Riley." He bit the word out, feeling guilty at the way she flinched at the hostility in his tone. He scrubbed a hand through his hair."Sorry. I didn't mean to snap."

Riley shrugged, the incident already forgotten, in her mind. "No biggie. Tough mission, I get it." The girl stood. "I'm gonna go find something to eat. I'll be back by the time Thornton gets here."

Jack watched her head out the door, hyper-aware of the way his young partner's gaze was focused on him. After another moment, he finally turned his gaze to the younger man."What?" He didn't bother to keep the sharpness out of his tone. MacGyver looked at him in surprise as he said, "Uh, I was just wondering if you were okay. You've seemed a little- off, I guess, since-"

Jack cut him off, standing in one fluid motion. "Since what, Mac? Since you failed to stop the bomb from going off?"

MacGyver flushed, red staining his face and the back of his neck as he stood as well, taking a few angry steps towards Jack. Jack matched his strides, and the two men ended up right in front of each other. MacGyver said, "You know I did my best."

Jack laughed, but there was no amusement in the discordant sound. "Your best to what? Get someone killed?" Jack took a savage pleasure in the way the kid flinched at that, his blue eyes widening a bit in surprise and hurt. Jack leaned down, using the inch or so he had on MacGyver to his advantage. "Face it, you were trained for this. You're supposed to be able to disarm these things, and you _failed_. You failed, and someone died, and it's because of _you_."

Jack shoved the younger man back a step, his face clouded with rage. "It's _your_ fault that that woman died, _kid_." Jack spat out the nickname that he had so often used to jokingly annoy MacGyver. The younger man was stumbling back with every shove Jack gave him, his face a picture of hurt and guilt. Jack continued, punctuating his words with shoves until the younger man hit the wall. Jack was shouting at this point, his angry voice the only sound in the room other than MacGyver's harsh breathing. "If you had tried _harder_ , then this wouldn't have happened!"

Jack slammed his hand into the wall, causing MacGyver's eyes to grow even larger. Suddenly, the door slammed open. Into the room strode a furious Patricia Thornton. " _What is going on here_?"

Jack turned away from the blond, focusing his weirdly blurry eyesight on his boss. She looked livid. "Agent Dalton," she bit out, "Move away from MacGyver _this instant_."

The same no-nonsense tone that intimidated even the most hardened of criminals brought Jack crashing back to his senses. He moved away from his partner, leaving the younger man leaning against the wall and peering up at the brunet with eyes blown wide with fear.

Fear. MacGyver was afraid of Jack. The realization made Jack sick to his stomach, and he could only watch in horror as the kid's eyes rolled up into his head and he dropped like a rock. Thankfully, the blond was already against the wall, so he merely slid down the wall, his eyes fluttering shut. Thornton turned to Riley who had appeared in the room at the same time as their boss. The girl looked scared as her boss snapped out, "Call an ambulance." With shaking hands, she obeyed.

Thornton roughly shouldered past Jack, not even glancing at him as she laid MacGyver out on the floor, feeling for a pulse. The lines of worry that had appeared on her face lessened slightly as she found one, but they were still present. She stayed with her agent until the paramedics arrived, with Jack watching from his spot. He hadn't moved, his increasingly blurry vision focused solely on his partner. He watched as the paramedics lifted the young man onto a gurney, and then, when they had vanished out the door and Thornton had turned her furious gaze on him, he gave in to the black dots that had begun to swim on the edges of his vision. He barely heard Patricia's worried shout before the darkness consumed him.

* * *

When Jack awoke, it was to a familiar white ceiling. _Sad_ , he mused to himself, _the hospital ceiling has become familiar_. He turned his head at the sound of a slight cough beside him to come face-to-face with his boss. "Patty," He managed to rasp out through a dry throat. The woman handed him a cup of water, watching him drink it silently. She waited until he had finished to start talking. "What do you remember?"

Jack squinted at her as he struggled to sort through his thoughts. "Um, there was a fire? An explosion? Then there's kind of a stretch of nothing, and then I remember being back at HQ, and then-" He stopped suddenly as he realized what his last memory was. "Mac! Is he okay? Where is he?"

Thornton rubbed a hand over her face. "MacGyver's fine. There was something in the bomb, as near as we can tell. Some kind of gas that amplifies emotions was released in the air just before it went off. The scientists have been experimenting with something like it, and from what they've told me, it basically screws with your mind. It made you blow up-" She paused when she saw Jack's slight wince, then continued, "Sorry, bad choice of words. You pretty much tore into Mac when you two got back to the Phoenix Foundation. I only caught the tail end of what was going on, but from what I could tell, you pretty much told him it was his fault that there was a civilian casualty on the mission."

Jack collapsed back against his pillows from the half-sitting position he had dragged himself into. "Oh, no."

Thornton nodded, her gaze sympathetic. "He collapsed right after I got to the debriefing room. The doctors said he had two broken ribs, although neither of them punctured his lung, somehow, and a laundry list of other scrapes and bruises. He's one room over, and still out of it, but the doctors assured me that he'll be fine."

Jack sighed in relief. "Thank goodness."

Patricia's sharp gaze found him. "You're good to walk around, but the doctors want you to stay here overnight for observation just to make sure that there's no lasting effects."

Jack nodded. Thornton stood, and with a last nod at him, walked out the door. Jack lay in the bed for a few minutes before he got up. After a quick stop in the bathroom, he headed into MacGyver's room. Thornton was there, talking quietly with Riley, who was sitting in a chair by the blond's bed. Both women's gazes flickered to Jack, and then Patricia squeezed the younger woman's shoulder in a silent message. The pair headed out the door, Riley stopping for a moment by Jack to murmur, "I'm glad you're okay," before hurrying to catch up with Patty.

Jack sighed, looking at the silent, pale figure that rested on the bed. He slid into the chair that Riley had vacated, scrubbing a hand over his face tiredly. After a few moments, he began to speak quietly, picking at a loose thread on the knee of his jeans. "Hey, buddy. I found out what happened. I don't- I guess I- ugh." The man was quiet for a second before trying again. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, I was completely out of my mind when I said that stuff to you. To be honest, I'm not even sure what I said. Patty told me that I blamed you for the civilian death, though, and that's not- it wasn't- it wasn't either of our faults. Things like that happen, even when we both do our best, like we did.

"But uh, I guess that the bomb let out some kind of gas. I'm guessing you were affected too. You weren't yelling at me to shut me up, like you normally would when I say something as stupid as I did, so that should've alerted me something was up. But uh, my emotions weren't the best either. Or my thought process.

"I guess this kind of sounds like I'm making excuses, but I'm not. I'm just trying to, you know, make my way around to apologizing. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry for what I said. I was an idiot, this wasn't your fault. And I'm sorry for not noticing that you were hurt. I should've noticed. I'm sorry."

A faint voice stopped him. Jack looked up to meet the gaze of his friend. A jolt of relief went through him as he realized that his friend was awake, and apparently up for talking, if the faint whisper that met his ears was any indication. "Wasn't... your fault. S'was the gas. Knew... you w'ldn't say 'nyhting like that," the younger man slurred.

Jack felt a small smile break out over his face. As his friend fell silent, exhausted by the effort of saying those few words and already beginning to be pulled back into unconsciousness by the drugs he was on, Jack patted his leg lightly. "I'm gonna let you rest."

The older man began to stand, but was stopped by a protesting hum from the younger man. The blond looked up at him sleepily, his tufty hair sticking up all over his head and his eyes large and pleading. Jack smiled fondly, giving in after a moment's hesitation. "Okay, budge over."

MacGyver shuffled over to edge of the bed, leaving a large enough space for Jack to collapse onto. Then, in a display that would've embarrassed the younger man had he not been too out of it to care, the kid rolled over- onto his good side, thankfully- and grasped Jack's shirt with a hand as he tucked himself into Jack's side. Jack smiled, feeling exhaustion begin to overtake him as well, and used his arm to pull MacGyver closer to him. Then, comforted by the reassurance that his surrogate brother had forgiven him, he fell into the embrace of sleep.

The two women gazed through the doorway, smiling at the sight that they had returned to from the cafeteria. Jack was lying on top of the covers, his arm encircling Mac and holding the younger man close. The blonde was lying on his good side, one hand fisted in the older man's shirt as they both slept. Tiny snores came from MacGyver.

Patricia chuckled, gently drawing Riley away from the sight. The younger woman followed her, glancing back once at the sight behind them and then hurrying to catch up to her boss. She said, "So, where are we going?"

Patricia smiled. "Well, since the boys are going to be asleep for a bit, I figured we'd have a girls' day out."

Riley nodded, a smile lighting up her face. "Nice. Speaking of which, I know this great little cupcake bakery that's only a few blocks from here..."

* * *

 **Have I mentioned that I love the whole "protective older sister-ish" vibe that Thornton's been giving out around Riley lately? I rewatched that one episode where she's teaching Riley how to fight, and I guess that kind of bled into this story.**

 **I have a headcanon that MacGyver snores, but it's just these cute little snores that barely make any noise. Not sure where this came from, but it's completely adorable in my mind.**

 **Full prompt: Mac pulls a stupid move to help Jack. Jack takes out his anger on him. Later, it's discovered that Mac is hurt (i.e. he faints or is found unconscious). Jack feels guilty. Lots of angst.**

 **Hope this enough angst for you, Rosenn Rae!**


End file.
